If you know me, then you know I love to play The Sims. I started off playing The Sims 2 and for a while, I thought that was the first Sims I ever played. But I realized the other day that I had played The Sims on the Playstation 2.

Eons ago, I remember going to my friend’s house. She’s not a big gamer, but she did enjoy games like Just Dance and that was something we used to play together all the time. However, the first game we ever really played together was probably The Sims.

I have to be honest, I don’t remember too much of it (seriously, I probably say this in every Throwback Thursday post) but she put on The Sims on her Playstation 2 and we sat in the living room for a good few hours playing. We created a female who lived alone. From what I remember of the game, it was dark and the graphics were terrible.

What did we do? I don’t remember that either. We just fooled around and had fun taking turns with the controls.

What I do remember is that the house caught on fire.

We told our sim to make herself dinner and she set the house on fire instead. Now, we all know that sims are pretty stupid without their “God” to help them out. In The Sims 4, they’re a lot smarter and will do simple tasks themselves if they really need to. This includes either running out of the house if there’s a fire or pulling out the fire extinguisher and putting out the fire themselves. Of course, having a fire alarm helps as well so the fire department automatically gets called.

Well, our sim didn’t have a fire alarm. The only way to get the fire department to come was to call them. The only way to call them was if the sim was far enough away from the fire, the sim needed to be “safe.”

Our sim was stupid. I recall spending at least a good 30 minutes trying to get her to call the fire department. She refused to run out of the house. She only wanted to stand directly next to the fire. When she did listen to us and go outside, before we were able to tell her to call the fire department, she was running back into the house in a panic.

You know how some sims feel the need to panic right beside the problem, point to it, and yell, “OMG! FIRE!” and not actually do anything productive about it?

Yeah. That was our sim.

We even paused the game once we got her outside at one point, cancelled her “panic” task, and ordered her to call the fire department. When we unpaused, she stood like a dope, and then ran back inside to panic some more.

We did eventually save her and the fire got put out. It was shortly after that we saved the game and never went back to it. We were too frustrated with her at that point even though we were laughing hysterically the entire time. Though, I think we were laughing because otherwise we’d be crying.

Now that I think back on it, I wonder if we were missing something? Maybe we had forgotten to give her a phone or something. I don’t know. Still, it was quite the adventure.

Do you remember playing the original Sims game? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

I can’t believe February is just about over. Since I’ll be starting mobile reviews next month, I decided to talk about a mobile game I used to play all the time.

Dragonvale is an IOS and Android game that was released by Backflip Studios in September 2011 for IOS. I had gotten my first iPad in May 2015 as a graduation present. I had downloaded a fair share of social media apps, WordPress and other “work” type apps, plus writing apps. I also wanted to look at the games because – let’s face it – that’s what everyone did on their phones and tablets at that point.

Not that the technology was new, but it was new enough. It was especially new to me.

I had found Dragonvale by accident. I was just scrolling through the games and when I saw dragons and how you can breed, hatch, and collect all these different dragons, I thought, sure. Why not?

Thus, a can of worms was opened. Normally, when I download a game on my iPad, I play it for about a week or two, get bored, and then delete it. Dragonvale was different. I played this game for quite a few years before I lost interest in it and deleted the game.

It was fun – being able to buy habitats and collecting dragons of various kinds and elements. The game was only four-years-old when I got it and there wasn’t a whole lot to do other than collect the dragons. However, they were always updating, changing, and adding things to the game. I watched the game grow and continued to play feeding off their additions. New dragon elements were added as were dragon races, a special material dragon for the nests when hatching, a guardian, gem dragons (dragons that make gems instead of money), and so much more.

It completely sucked me in.

When I was searching for games to play for my mobile reviews, I came across it again. I downloaded the game to check out where I left off and how different the game was since I had last played a couple years ago. I was level 74 and now, after playing it again for about a month, I’m almost level 80. I’ve been suckered in again.

I also found a newer version of Dragonvale by the same company and had downloaded that as well. I’ve been playing both and plan on doing a mini review of both as well as comparing the two to each other.

Dragonvale itself isn’t that great of a game, but I do love collecting this and I remember getting my friends and cousins involved with the game as well so we could send each other gems. It does, oddly enough, hold some fun memories.

Have you ever played Dragonvale? Are there any mobile games that sucked you in? Let me know in the comments below! If you liked this post, please share it around.

It’s the final Thursday of 2018! I can’t believe that! What better way to celebrate the final Thursday of the year other than with a throwback to a game I used to played years ago.

Bubble Struggle, which used to be called Bubble Trouble when I played it, is a PC game where you played as a devil-like character. His job was to destroy bubbles by shooting them in the air as they bounced around. The bubbles came in various sizes. Once you hit a big one, it’d split in two. Then you’d hit those and they’d split in two as well. Keep hitting them all until all the bubbles are gone. Then you move onto the next level.

It was a simple game. If I remember correctly, you just moved left and right with the arrow keys and hit the space bar to shoot. There wasn’t much to the levels either. The backgrounds were solid colors or gradients but it looked pretty enough. Some levels started with one bubble while others began with multiples. Again, they were various sizes so sometimes it would take a while to get rid of one bubble and it was very easy for the levels to get chaotic.

I remember there were power-ups for your gun that came out of the bubbles sometimes. This could be a laser which was much faster or it could be spikes that would stick to the ceiling and wouldn’t go away unless a bubble hit it – but that also meant you couldn’t shoot again unless something got rid of the bubble.

I can’t remember how many lives you had. I believe if you got hit three times by the bubbles then you lost. I also can’t remember if, when you lost, you had to start back at level one or if you just restarted the level you were currently on.

Wow. I’m honestly shocked I remember so much of the game. I wasn’t sure how I was going to write a blog post on this but once I started talking about it everything started coming back to me. I definitely want to track down this game and play again. Maybe, if I’m able to download it, I’ll stream it sometime. Though I’m not sure how entertaining that would be.

Bubble Struggle was the game that everyone in my entire school would play whenever we had computer time in elementary school. I mean, kids would fight over the three desktop computers that were in each classroom just so they could play Bubble Struggle. If you didn’t get to a computer fast enough, you’d have a crowd of kids behind you watching and rooting for you… or heckling you. I had a weird class.

I had completely forgotten about this game until Kris and I played The Bug Butcher. She mentioned how the game sort of reminded her of “that alien bubble game” I used to play. Naturally, I had no clue what she was talking about and Google somehow knew exactly what she meant when she said, “alien bubble game.” This is definitely one I need to try playing again. I just hope I don’t get addicted to it.

Have you ever heard of this game or played it? Let me know in the comments below!

With the announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 3 on the Nintendo Switch as well as the new co-op mode for the original Luigi’s Mansion remake, I got to thinking back to the first time I played Luigi’s Mansion.

Luigi has always been one of my favorites (no offense, Mario), so when I heard Nintendo was making a game just for Luigi, I was stoked. I assume I got the Gamecube game for Christmas or something shortly after it came out. But I never finished it.

I got to the first boss, Baby Chauncey, and once I beat him, I stopped playing. I got stuck.

Yep. I got stuck in Luigi’s Mansion.

I had no idea where to go after that even though the same lays it out for you and it’s fairly obvious. I think I caught a few more ghosts but couldn’t find where to go after that. I don’t think I had a key or a certain item I needed. I’m pretty sure I missed a step somewhere and never realized it.

It was quite a while later when I decided to finally go back and play the game. I believe it was when Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon was announced. I had wanted to get and play the game so bad but I realized I never even beat the first one.

I remember sitting in the basement with the large screen TV playing the game. I got spooked by the ghosts, especially being in the basement, because I’m a child, but I did it. I played through the whole game. I also remember thinking to myself, “How did I get stuck on this game?” So, yeah, I don’t know what I did the first time I tried playing it. I screwed up somewhere.

I’m glad I went back to it and beat it though. Then I got Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon. I played through that, got stuck on the final boss, and then stopped playing it for about a year or so. It was when my cousin, who’s about nine years younger than me, got to the final boss on her copy of the game. My competitiveness came out and I didn’t want her to beat the game before me. We spent a week away on summer vacation each playing our games. I beat the game before her, but it still took her a lot less tries to beat it than it took me.

I’m a good gamer, that’s all there is to it.

We’ll see how Luigi’s Mansion 3 is for the Switch!

Have you had any experiences like this with a game? Let me know in the comments below!

I decided to talk about something a little different today. Something that’s a classic and will never get old.

The board game Clue originally came out in 1949 and there are have been various versions to come out ever since. This is a classic board game that myself and my family and friends have played over and over again. Currently, it’s a game my cousins and I love to play together. It’s a go-to game to bring on vacation with us whenever we go away.

A couple summers ago it was a game we played pretty much every day and multiple times during the day as well. You know, because it was summer so therefore we were inside all day.

They also have a DVD version of the game as well. It adds a little more to the board game. There are more characters and more rooms. It’s also a robbery rather than a murder, so you need to figure out who, where, what, and also when. It’s a lot to figure out and the inspector can give hints or force all the players to share one piece of evidence from their hand.

Clue is a classic and it’s one that I’ll always love to play with friends and family, old and new. It’s one of my favorite board games and no two play-throughs are ever alike.

There is a Clue video game that I’ve never played before and will definitely look into getting in the future.

Do you love Clue? Do you play it often? Have you played the video game version? Let me know in the comments below!

With the announcement of Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! it’s got me thinking about the original Kanto games that game out in the 90s.

I didn’t officially start my Pokemon journey until Johto because I was pretty young with Red, Blue, and Yellow came out. The first time I played Kanto was when FireRed and LeafGreen came out, though I had played Yellow and Blue later in life.

I still don’t have Pokemon Red – it’s the last game I need in order to complete my full Pokemon games collection. However, the Gameboy Color games are pretty hard to come by these days.

I ended up getting Pokemon Blue on a whim on day years ago. I was searching eBay (I have no idea why) and I noticed there was Pokemon Blue on auction for a dollar – and there was only 10 minutes left of the auction.

I immediately texted my friend, who I knew had an eBay buyers account, and she let me sign into it so I could give it a go.

Once I was on, I set up a bid and waited. I constantly refreshed the page, but I realized if people hadn’t bid on it yet, who would?

People who wait until others bid on it first because, apparently, people like to wait until the last possible minute to bid so they can get it. Clever, definitely.

Let me tell you – those 10 minutes were the most stressful of my life. I ended up in a bidding war with one other person. For 10 minutes, I upped my bid just just a little bit every few seconds as the other person wasn’t letting up.

I won, needless to say. I remember I refreshed the page when the timer ticked to zero and the other guy’s username was still the latest bid. I’m not sure how I won, but I somehow managed to get my latest bid in right before the end.

I ended up getting Pokemon Blue for $8.00. That’s it.

And it still works.

Are there any games you’ve gotten in a special way? Let me know in the comments below!

It’s time for another Throwback and whereas I’ve been getting together with old friends and having more game nights with them, I was reminded of a certain game we used to play.

A long, long time ago, I was sleeping over my friend’s house. We were in the basement and were playing video games. I can’t remember if we were playing the Playstation or the Gamecube, but we were playing Shrek’s Super Party.

It was a terrible game. But it was in the middle of the night, we were overtired, and therefore everything was hilarious. The game itself was pretty funny because it was an awful game, but 3AM makes everything funnier.

I’ll be honest, I don’t remember too much of the game. I believe she played as Fiona and I was Donkey and we played the mini-games instead of the main part of the game. I remember the game “Chick Magnet” the best.

As your character, you collected eggs from the chicks inside a farm. Whoever had the most won. We played this game on a loop because watching the baby chicks chase our big-headed characters was hilarious for some reason.

It’s funny to me how a game so bad – that much I remember – can give me such fond memories. We had played the game once more after that sleepover and as we played it, I remember we asked ourselves, “Why did we stay up all night playing this one game…?”

Obviously, I wouldn’t try to track it down and buy it now. But the memories are good.

Do you remember Shrek Super Party? Have you ever played it before? Let me know in the comments below!

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